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Bar - Clayoquot Hiking Terms

Bar: A ridge of sand or gravel in shallow water built by waves and currents. Tsusiat Falls along the West Coast Trail on Vancouver Island has an excellent example of a bar. An enormous and ever changing sand bar created from the waterfall meeting the Pacific Ocean. Often this bar is a dozen metres high and 400 metres long as it runs parallel to the ocean before flowing into it. Similar to a barrier beach, however a bar is more pliable and recent than a barrier beach, which tends to have long-term plant growth on it.

The ever-changing bar created by Tsusiat Falls on the West Coast Trail. Every spring reveals a radically changed bar at Tsusiat Falls. Winter storms batter the shore and obliterate the established bar from the previous year. Though following roughly the same route every year, the bar here can be shallow or deep, winding or straight as it makes its way to the ocean.

The West Coast Trail is incredible. Everything about it is amazing. From its wildly, incomprehensibly enormous trees to it's endless jaw dropping views. And it's tough. Very tough. It is a trail that shouldn't exist. Trails always form out of the easiest route worn down over the years. This trail was formed out of necessity. And the route is the only route. Hemmed in by steep cliffs on one side and the ocean on the other, the route evolved where it shouldn't have. Always wet, always up and down, thousands of creeks and canyons. Even with all the construction of suspension bridges and ladders it's brutal. And yearly, winter storms blast down impossibly enormous trees. It's difficulty can be measured by its relatively short distance of 75km yet it takes 4-7 days to complete. This is for two wonderful, spectacular and telling reasons. First it is a jigsaw of a trail, up and down over endless chasms tangled with rainforest.

It just takes a long time to snake through. The second reason is just too good to be true. It's so beautiful. Wildly beautiful. And this is a phenomenon that the West Coast Trail is alive with. It's unbelievably beautiful at every glance. Everywhere you look. This alone would secure this hike as one of the worlds best. But there is another thing that combined with its beauty, makes it what it is. West Coast Trail. This is a phenomenon that is seldom understood or explainable. It's tough. The trail is brutal. It's invariably raining. So you are always wet. This makes you soggy and crabby. Tired and exhausted. The treacherous trail in this wet is muddy, slippery and requires your full attention at every step. This mesmerizes you as you hike. You focus completely on your next step and your mind relaxes into a meditative state. This is when it happens. You look up, catch a glance of what's around you. And it's marvelous. This is it. The West Coast Trail is a perfect combination of brutal difficulty and spectacular wildness and beauty.

The West Coast Trail, originally called the Dominion Life Saving Trail was built out of necessity because of the enormous number of shipwrecks that gave this stretch of ocean from Tofino to Victoria the brutal name, The Graveyard of the Pacific. With at least 484 shipwrecks, this trail formed to facilitate survivors walking to Victoria and rescuers hiking to help them. It inevitably became a recreational hike in the last few decades. It's difficulty, once it's worst trait, now it's defining feature. It lies within the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve which represents and protects three beautiful, coastal lowland forests. Long Beach, the Broken Group Islands, and the West Coast Trail.

Glossary of Hiking Terms

Highpointing: the sport of hiking to as many high points(mountain peaks) as possible in a given area. For example, highpointing the lower 48 states in the United states. This was first achieved in 1936 by A.H. Marshall. In 1966 Vin Hoeman highpointed all 50 states. It is estimated that over 250 people have highpointed all of the US states. Highpointing is similar peakbagging, however peakbagging is the sport of climbing several peaks in a given area above a certain elevation. For example, a highpointer may climb the summit of Wedge Mountain, the highest peak in the Garibaldi Ranges, then move to another mountain range. Whereas a peakbagger may summit Wedge Mountain, then Black Tusk, Panorama Ridge, Mount Garibaldi and many more high summits in the region.

Tarn: a small alpine lake. The word tarn originates from the Norse word tjorn which translates to English as pond. In the United Kingdom, tarn is widely used to refer to any small lake or pond. In British Columbia however, tarn is used specifically for small mountain lakes. Around Whistler tarns number in the hundreds and many are so small and/or hidden as to remain unnamed. Russet Lake in Garibaldi Provincial Park could be called a tarn, however its relatively large size dominates the area and the term lake seems more appropriate. The nearby Adit Lakes are more accurately called tarns as they are small, shallow and sit in an alpine zone, buried in snow most of the year.

Transverse Crevasses: form perpendicular to the flow of a glacier. These are normally found where a glacier flows over a slope with a gradient change of 30 degrees or more.

Traverse: crossing a slope at the same elevation.

Valley Glacier: A glacier that resides and flows in a valley. Many glaciers around Whistler and in Garibaldi Provincial Park are valley glaciers. The Wedge Glacier above Wedgemount Lake flows down the valley from Wedge Mountain. When you reach Panorama Ridge in Garibaldi Provincial Park, valley glaciers dominate the view along with the unnaturally brilliant Garibaldi Lake below.

Waterbar: a ditch that carries water from one side of a road to the other.